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If this is it and the NHL lockout is likely to be over in a matter of days, the players back for a training camp next week and a 56-game schedule in place by Dec. 15, the first question will be whether the fans will come back.

Considering it’s the third NHL lockout of the Gary Bettman era, it might mean it’s also strike three for many fans around the 30-team league. They’ll have had enough with a league that has lost more games due to work stoppages than all the other major sports circuits combined.

But not here.

Not in Edmonton.

The last place in the league that will likely see fans walking away from the NHL when the game returns to the ice are Daryl Katz faithful following here.

Oh, owner Katz may currently be less popular in his own precinct than any of the other owners who met in New York Wednesday. But that’s more about his attempt to use the passion of the populace for his NHL team to squeeze as much out of the public purse as possible as he continues to hiss around without closing the downtown arena deal despite the value of his franchise going from $166 million to $225 million (Forbes Magazine) while the city suffered through 30th-, 30th- and 29th-place seasons without an empty seat.

The wait has been excruciating, but not like it is in Toronto or Calgary, where the wait has been to see more of the same.

Here, when the lockout ends, a new era begins.

And it’s more like Christmas coming than the depression ending.

After selecting three consecutive No.1 overall draft picks — Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov — with the bonus of having the equivalent of another one — Justin Schultz — to go with first-rate talent and leader Jordan Eberle, the wait to start this season has just added to the anticipation. Maybe even given it extra separation to differentiate it from what we’ve been watching.

I think most fans in Edmonton had it figured that this season would likely get settled sometime between Grey Cup and Christmas because two thirds of the American owners lose money until college and NFL football is over anyway, and the players had to stay together and stay out this long to prove that they’re serious.

For the most part, it’s been remarkably healthy, the way most Edmonton fans have handled the lockout. The majority have chosen not to get emotionally involved like they may have in the first two go-rounds, mostly choosing to ignore it and follow the Oklahoma City Barons and Memorial Cup-calibre Edmonton Oil Kings instead of Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr’s daily no-content soap opera. The lockout coverage has been way back in the sports sections.

The point here is, if hockey season is about to begin, Edmonton will be the first town in the league to dive into the deep end. When Nail Yakupov, Ales Hemsky, Sam Gagner, Corey Potter, Ladislav Smid and Lennart Petrell fly back from Europe and Eberle, Hall, RNH and Schultz and a few friends bring their show north from Oklahoma City, the talk in Edmonton will instantly be whether the Oilers will have an advantage in the 54-, 56-, 58- or 60-game season they ultimately decide upon.

If it happens, with all their top young stars already in mid-season form, do they go from a projected knock-on-the-door-to-the-playoffs team this year to one that can actually be expected to play their first playoff game since Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup final?

It’ll be feet first into the story lines of the lines themselves. Who is the defensive partner who best fits AHL leading scorer Schultz? New roles for Shawn Horcoff and Ryan Smyth? What to do with the goaltending? Is there any point playing Nikolai Khabibulin? Do you start the season with Yann Danis up from OKC while lockout-stale Devan Dubnyk gets the rust off? Should Teemu Hartikainen and Magnus Paajarvi start the season here?

And when the details of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement are revealed, what trade possibilities jump out to make the best use of Edmonton’s stockpile of developing talent or soon-to-be expendable veterans going forward?

Edmonton Oilers fans will flock back to Rexall Place once the NHL resumes action

If this is it and the NHL lockout is likely to be over in a matter of days, the players back for a training camp next week and a 56-game schedule in place by Dec. 15, the first question will be whether the fans will come back.

Considering it’s the third NHL lockout of the Gary Bettman era, it might mean it’s also strike three for many fans around the 30-team league. They’ll have had enough with a league that has lost more games due to work stoppages than all the other major sports circuits combined.

But not here.

Not in Edmonton.

The last place in the league that will likely see fans walking away from the NHL when the game returns to the ice are Daryl Katz faithful following here.

Oh, owner Katz may currently be less popular in his own precinct than any of the other owners who met in New York Wednesday. But that’s more about his attempt to use the passion of the populace for his NHL team to squeeze as much out of the public purse as possible as he conti

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After the odd game or the occasional stretch like the recent Arizona-Arizona-Toronto, 899,447 Edmontonians, and half as many again in surrounding communities, run around shouting ‘The Sky Is Falling! The Sky is Falling!’